Some­times, we need to look up from that mon­i­tor and get our­selves some Vit­a­min D from the big solar dis­penser. Here are some of our favourite out­doors places:

Walking along the waterfront

What could be bet­ter than a stroll along the water­front? Not much! On a sun­ny day, it seems all of Welling­ton is walking/riding/running between Queen’s Wharf and Chaf­fers’ Mari­na. OK, let’s exag­ger­ate slight­ly and declare that it’s like La Ram­bla, but with­out the tourists and the shops!

Waterfront rain

And on a mis­er­able day, if you can brave the ele­ments you’ll have the entire place to your­self…

Kreüzberg Summer Cafe/Grow From Here

Kreüzberg Summer CaféMak­ing good use of an old car deal­er site on the cor­ner of Cuba And Webb Streets, Kreüzberg Sum­mer Cafe has recent­ly been joined by urban plant shop Grow From Here and hid­den around the cor­ner is fash­ion and jew­ellery gallery Duel. The out­door pic­nic table seat­ing and lush sur­round­ings make this a wel­come oasis in the inner city.

Kreüzberg Sum­mer Café / Grow From Here: Cor­ner Cuba & Webb St

Shorland Park, Island Bay

The Last Whopper ChopperThis is one for those with kids: far away at the end of a ride on trol­ley Bus Route 1. Shorland Park is right beside the sea, where you could watch the boats bob­bing in the bay; pud­dle around on the beach; or jump off that con­crete wharf thing for a dip in the shal­lows. After­wards, grab some fish and chips from one of the near­by take­aways, and when hunger is sat­ed let the kids ram­page around. Now that’s got to be good for every­one’s san­i­ty!

Shorland Park: Reef St, Island Bay

Zealandia

tui at the flaxOK, so some of us may have got­ten snarky about their new(ish) name, but there’s no deny­ing the impact the for­mer Karori Wildlife Sanc­tu­ary is hav­ing on Welling­ton. You don’t have to vis­it to enjoy the Tuī now spread­ing east across town and into the Mira­mar Penin­su­lar; or the Kākā wheel­ing above the West; or the Kārearea hunt­ing the dawn cho­rus of the hill sub­urbs — lit­tle of this would be hap­pen­ing with­out Zealan­di­a’s refuge and base for these birds. But no Welling­ton­ian should go with­out at least one vis­it — there’s so much more to see inside that preda­tor-proof fence…

Zealan­dia: 31 Waia­pu Rd

Biking at Makara Peak

MTB Ride - Makara Peak - 2nd Dec 2007 (2)Cycling around Welling­ton’s nar­row roads can be a bit of a hair-rais­ing expe­ri­ence (and let’s hope our new may­or can improve upon that for us) but off-road, there’s a huge array of tracks all around and through the green areas and reserves of Welling­ton. The best of these is the Makara Moun­tain Bike Park, way out the far end of Karori: 24 km of spe­cial­ly built sin­gle track rang­ing in required skill lev­els from begin­ner through to clin­i­cal­ly insane. Now, if only there was a pub­lic trans­port option that could take us, and our bikes, out to the Park!

Makara Peak Moun­tain Bike Park: South Karori Road